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Private Governance Undermined: India and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

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  • Philip Schleifer

    (University of Amsterdam)

Abstract

Are emerging markets undermining private environmental governance? In the past, most trade in agricultural commodities occurred between developed and developing countries, but in recent years the volume of South-South trade has increased significantly. The booming demand from emerging markets for food, feed, and fiber is now a key driver behind agricultural expansion, causing large-scale deforestation and biodiversity loss in the tropics. By examining the case of palm oil, this article argues that existing private governance institutions are not well equipped to deal with this crisis. They continue to operate on the basis of a North-South trade model, trying to leverage the market power of big-brand companies to achieve their sustainability goals. However, the effectiveness of this mechanism is increasingly undermined by the rise of South-South trade and the different structure and institutional context of emerging market value chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip Schleifer, 2016. "Private Governance Undermined: India and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 16(1), pages 38-58, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:16:y:2016:i:1:p:38-58
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Laura M. G. Hidalgo & Rosane N. de Faria & Roberta Souza Piao & Christine Wieck, 2023. "Multiplicity of sustainability standards and potential trade costs in the palm oil industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 263-284, January.
    2. José Carlos Marques & Burkard Eberlein, 2021. "Grounding transnational business governance: A political‐strategic perspective on government responses in the Global South," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1209-1229, October.
    3. Bloomfield, Michael J., 2020. "South-South trade and sustainable development: The case of Ceylon tea," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Schleifer, Philip & Fiorini, Matteo & Fransen, Luc, 2019. "Missing the Bigger Picture: A Population-level Analysis of Transnational Private Governance Organizations Active in the Global South," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    5. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Wilman, Elizabeth A., 2019. "Market Redirection Leakage in the Palm Oil Market," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 226-234.
    7. Dermawan, Ahmad & Hospes, Otto & Termeer, C.J.A.M., 2022. "Between zero-deforestation and zero-tolerance from the state: Navigating strategies of palm oil companies of Indonesia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Meier, Leonie, 2017. "Beating the Microbead: How private environmental governance has influenced the regulatory process of banning microbeads in the UK," MarXiv wpr8k, Center for Open Science.
    9. Hamish van der Ven & David Barmes, 2023. "The uneasy marriage of private standards and public policies for sustainable commodity governance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5161-5173, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economics; environment; politics; private; demand; sustainability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

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